Carbajal touts delivery of federal funds for OB/GYN program

Congressman

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

secured $1M for Marian Regional Medical Center

On Thursday, Rep. Salud Carbajal visited the Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria to highlight the impact of $1 million in federal funds for the establishment of a permanent home for the OB/GYN residency program.

“OB/GYN residents and doctors are so crucial to the health of our new mothers and families, and the newest members of our community. Despite this, we are facing a shortage of medical professionals in this region to support Central Coast families,” Rep. Carbajal said in a press release. “I am proud to have secured $1 million for Marian Regional Medical Center’s OB/GYN Residency Program, which will help give this clinic a permanent home that will bring more medical professionals to the Central Coast, and build a stronger and brighter future for us all.”

Rep. Carbajal was joined by Marian’s president and CEO, Sue Andersen, to tour the future home of the expanded medical center’s OB/GYN residency program clinic.

“As our program has grown, we have quickly realized that expansion of clinical and lecture space, in addition to advanced medical equipment, is needed to further the OB/GYN physician residents’ training,” Ms. Andersen said in a press release. “On behalf of the entire Dignity Health team, I extend my most sincere appreciation to Congressman Carbajal for his support and advocacy. OB/ GYN physicians serve all women–from adolescence on – and access to health care for all is imperative.”

While the numbers of local and national OB/GYN physicians are declining, in 2022, Marian experienced a record number of infant deliveries, totaling more than 3,200. Establishing a permanent home for the OB/GYN facility and program, which trains medical residents to provide critical prenatal, perinatal, and postpartum services to thousands of central coast residents, will help

Last two oil piers in state removed at Haskell’s Beach

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The State Lands Commission, in collaboration with the city of Goleta, has removed the last two oil pier and caisson structures in the state, located at Haskell’s Beach in Goleta.

combat a nationwide shortage of OB/GYN physicians, a shortfall that is expected to reach 22,000 physicians by 2050.

Marian’s OB/GYN residency program clinic will be operated by Dignity Health’s Pacific Central Coast Health Centers, a non-profit community clinic organization made up of nearly 50 health centers located primarily from Templeton to Lompoc, in the Central Valley in Bakersfield and as far south as Ventura and Oxnard.

After advocating for this and other community projects over the majority of 2022, Rep. Carbajal successfully secured more than $22 million for fourteen projects in the congressional spending package that was signed into law in December.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

This milestone decommissioning project marks the end of oil production in the Ellwood Oil Field, production that started in the late 1920s and continued into the 1990s. At one time, the shoreline was marked by thirteen piers as well as oil storage and processing facilities immediately onshore. Now the final two piers and caissons are gone, restoring full coastal access and eliminating public safety and environmental threats.

“Removal of the last two oil piers in the state is a defining moment for the region and for California,” Eleni Kounalakis, lieutenant governor and State Lands Commission chair, said in a press release. “Their removal moves us one step closer to a future free of fossil fuels and restores access to a beautiful coastline for the community of Goleta.”

The two structures, known as PRC 421-1 and 421-2, were installed in 1929 and 1930 for the purpose of oil and gas development of the Ellwood Oil Field.

After Venoco filed for bankruptcy in 2017, the South Ellwood leases reverted